Better Hands Than Mine

bySean

Implicit in A Course in Miracles is the fact that God has a plan for salvation and that our peace and happiness lies in accepting – and not resisting – that plan.

We dedicate ourselves to truth today, and to salvation as God planned it be. We will not argue it is something else. We will not seek for it where it is not. In gladness we accept it as it is . . . (W-pI.98.1:5-8).

In a sense, accepting God’s plan for salvation is akin to saying that everything as it is in this moment is okay. We don’t have to worry. Our role isn’t to establish the plan or assess the plan or alter the plan. That’s in better hands that ours.

You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement is beyond you . . . The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are (T-9.IV.2:1, 5).

Can we trust that? Can we live our lives – moment by moment, day by day – as if every detail from the smallest to the largest imaginable is safely proceeding according to the will of God, of Love?

We are not asked to accept this alone – to make this leap of faith – without aid. The Manual for Teachers assures us that we can place complete confidence in God and that by doing so, we ensure our complete safety. Nothing happens at random.

Seeing this and understanding that it is true, [the teacher of God] rests content. He will be told all that his role should be, this day and every day . . . Not one is absent whom he needs . . . He is set, and see the road on which he walk stretch surely and smoothly before him (M-16.1:4-5, 7, 10).

Lesson 98, which I cited above, urges us to spend at least five minutes every hour remembering this truth – that the plan is in better hands than ours and that we need to do nothing but accept that. Sometimes we need to do this ever half hour. Sometimes more! And we don’t even need to believe it. Our willingness to believe it – to act as if it is true – is sufficient.

Even the faintest hint of willingness to accept another way can undo the ego’s emphasis on specialness, its insistence that we need our own plan, and that we need to execute it, and that nothing – not even God – could possibly do it better.

I have to come to this moment often. I have to take a few minutes to be quiet and still. There are bills to be paid, papers to be graded, meals to be cooked, dogs to be walked. The list is endless. Yet behind it – if I am willing – is the clear and simple love of God. I am where I am supposed to be and so are you. To the degree we accept this, we are at peace.

Sean,
Thank you so much for this. You never fail to deliver. This is beautiful and a good reminder that we must constantly be aware that things are as they should be. It is the ego’s way to want to control. It is so much easier just to love and let go.

Please know that I have passed your blog on to the person who runs our weekly ACIM group and she loves it as well. Thanks for all you do.

Thank you Sean. I wrote a reminder to myself just this morning that your words just helped solidify:

Perhaps today I should stay out of the “what ifs” and “how comes.” Perhaps that’s how one avoids going on useless journeys. Perhaps I need to get out of the driver’s seat and let the Holy Spirit direct the course. Perhaps my unconditional acceptance of “what is” will allow me to recognize that I am exactly where I need to be today, and that includes these exact circumstances. Perhaps I choose peace, instead of “this,” by simply staying in the moment. I can see this differently. I can choose peace. I can accept what is. I can strengthen right mindedness instead of the ego’s view. I can breathe, and keep breathing, and choose Love.

Thank you, Sean! Every word of your post today rings true for me, and absolutely right on target for a specific family situation I’ve been experiencing. Truly, an answer to prayer, and a confirmation to me that I am in good hands!

This is a timely and helpful post for me as well, Sean. thank you !
I have, as I see Franco did, passed the link to your blog on to an ACIM study group that I attend when I am visiting my home town. I’m sure the members will enjoy it as well!
Take care –
Aleta

Sean, Understanding and living what this post explains, makes life so much easier to accept, even when life might seem unacceptable. I am finally letting go of something-someone, and that is what has brought me to this understanding. Not an easy thing, involvement with a Narcissist( I do not like labels) where you think you can help someone, and intentions are pure, but it just can’t work. I don’t even think his intentions are “bad” but they just they are all about their survival in the end. I dated this person over 30 years ago, but moved on with my car accident and coma I told you about. Always friends, but I didn’t really see him much for 30 years, and we led totally separate lives. I did get wholly involved over the last 3 years, and Maybe I would not have learned the lessons I did, 1 after the other, if I had stayed with him earlier. I know I create what I see, hard as it has been on me, but it is also gotten me to this understanding(s), and that was what it was all about from the start. A setting up of the right time in my life for me to learn and accept these lessons of A Course in Miracles. Thanks again.

Thank U so very much. As the course says there are no accidents and this was exactly what I needed and it inspired the me in my ACIM class. Franco is the one who introduced me to U and I am very grateful for him as well as U. All is well.

You’re welcome, Janet. We are approaching wisdom when we start to see the circumstances of our lives as learning opportunities – however difficult, however challenging. Coming to understanding is not always easy but it does bring with it some peace and some space in which we can keep learning. Thank you for reading.